Deputy Prime Minister Trần Lưu Quang chairs the online meeting on administrative procedure reform on Wednesday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – Deputy Prime Minister Trần Lưu Quang has instructed ministries, sectors and localities to review existing limitations in administrative procedure reform and send their findings to the Government Office before May 15.

He made this request during Wednesday's online meeting on administrative procedure reform with the ministries of National Defence, Foreign Affairs, Information and Communications and eight localities, Hà Nội, HCM City, Hải Phòng, Đà Nẵng, Cần Thơ, Quảng Ninh, Hải Dương and Tây Ninh.

Quang, Head of the Government's Administrative Procedure Reform Task Force, chaired the meeting.

Ngô Hải Phan, Director of the Administrative Procedure Control Department reported that according to the Satisfaction Index of Public Administration Services (SIPAS), the Ministry of National Defence ranked second, decreasing by 17.9 points compared to the assessment in the fourth quarter of 2023. The Ministry of Information and Communications ranked 12th, decreasing by 7.4 points, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ranked 16th, up by 5.3 points.

Regarding localities, Cần Thơ ranked ninth (increasing by 2.31 points), Hải Dương ranked 14th (decreasing by 3.43 points), Tây Ninh ranked 37th (decreasing by 1.33 points), Hải Phòng ranked 46th (decreasing by 1.12 points), HCM City ranked 48th (decreasing by 0.76 points), Quảng Ninh ranked 53rd (decreasing by 10.05 points), Đà Nẵng ranked 58th (decreasing by 8.99 points) and Hà Nội ranked 59th (increasing by 0.04 points).

Regarding the reduction of business regulations, the Ministry of National Defence has simplified and reduced 11 out of 35 administrative procedures. Among 24 administrative procedures yet to be implemented, four are related to the management of industrial explosive materials and precursor chemicals and depend on amendments to the Law on Cyber Security and the Law on Management and Use of Weapons, Explosive Materials and Supporting Tools.

For the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Government Office said the ministry had only slashed 73 out of 202 business regulations.

A review has been conducted to propose the simplification and reduction of business license requirements for eight administrative procedures.

Regarding the decentralisation of administrative procedure resolution, the Ministry of National Defence still has seven procedures not yet decentralised, including two overdue ones.

The Ministry of Information and Communications has 47 out of 66 procedures yet to be decentralised as planned, including one overdue procedure.

For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the drafting and issuance of legal normative documents to implement the administrative procedure decentralsation plan are still within the deadline of the second quarter of 2024.

In the implementation of the plan to simplify administrative procedures and documents related to citizens, the Ministry of National Defence still has 22 procedures to be simplified, the Ministry of Information and Communications has 20 procedures, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has eigh procedures.

At the conference, representatives from ministries, sectors and localities suggested that the Government Office continue to enhance the operationality of the National Public Service Portal based on the national administrative procedure database.

They proposed exploring and studying technical solutions for data sharing and disseminating the quality assessment results of public services to citizens and businesses during the execution of administrative procedures.

They also recommended providing real-time public services from the National Public Service Portal to provincial administrative procedure resolution information systems to facilitate data connectivity and reuse at each department, sector, and district-level People's Committees.

Ministries and sectors were required to issue decisions to announce administrative procedures in accordance with prescribed timelines and promptly update all procedures onto the national administrative procedure database.

Deputy PM Quang said administrative procedure reform has seen progress, contributing to socio-economic development and improveming the investment and business environment.

He reminded the Ministry of Information and Communications to propose plans to simplify and reduce licenses related to business activities for approval. Other ministries with approved plans needed to promptly implement them.

Deputy PM Quang also instructed localities to publicly announce administrative procedure reforms, accelerate the exploitation and reuse of information and data available in the database, and intensify the provision of online public services.

He noted that Hà Nội, HCM City, Quảng Ninh và Bình Dương have been selected to develop a single-window customs mechanism. These four localities should accelerate the implementation progress. – VNS